


Unearthed in Slumber

by Browa123



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Giant/Tiny, fantastical elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-11-17 15:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18101180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browa123/pseuds/Browa123
Summary: Oneshot collection for my new Guardian AU, where a giant ghost sleeps under the earth and his dreams defend his lair.





	1. The Mystery Meat

**Author's Note:**

> Establishing chapter here! This one has the accident and introduces a guardian ghost to Amity
> 
> Portal Accident description at the beginning, so character death warning to an extent.

"Smile!" The bright camera flashes, leaving Danny to blink rapidly. Sam takes the photo that had just printed from the camera and waves it in the air to clear up the image. 

Danny shuffles his feet and shivers. "Okay, I showed you the portal, can we get out of here now? It's cold down here and my parents will be back any minute!" he looks around with a nervous expression. "Besides, they say it doesn't even work anyway..."

"Come on Danny! A ghost zone? You gotta check it out," Sam quickly interjects with a wide grin. Ghosts and evil spirits had always been up her alley, and for once she was excited about something. In turn, Danny felt a familiar lurch in his chest, one from since the portal began to be built.

"You know what?" Finally, without his parent's watchful eye, he caved. "You're right! Who knows what awesome, super-cool things exist on the other side of that portal?" with a few swift motions, he pulled the Hazmat suit over his shoulders and zipped up the center of the rubbery material.

"Hang on," Sam said, quickly putting down the camera and walking over to Danny. She grabs something on his chest and tears it off in a swift motion. "We're not getting a picture of you with this on your chest," a sticker of his father's face in in her grasp.

"And now there's adhesive marks all over the front of my suit," Danny groans, picking at the sticky flaps of leftover paper. Better than the caricature of his father though, less embarrassing.

"Here. I got just the thing, man!" Tucker reaches into his backpack and pulls out some dark fabric. He wraps it around Danny like a bandanna, tying the back and using the front to cover the adhesive marks. "Now that's a photogenic costume!" Tucker smirks.

"Looks good, you're ready for an adventure to another dimension now!" Sam picks up the camera and gives Danny a thumbs up. The boy nods and heads into the portal with a smile, that slowly fades as things get darker. He shivers, not being able to see much.

He turns to look back at his friends, but trips on a stray cable hidden by the darkness. Danny tries to keep his balance, but is unable to keep himself upright, his hand grasps at the wall, and something indents as he falls flat on his front, foot tangled in the very cable he tripped on.

Then there was the hideous sound of whirring. The pitch black slowly began to light up with an eerie green glow, things rotating behind Danny as his crystal blue eyes widen with realization. The portal is turning on with him inside it.

He hears his friends cry for him to get out of the portal, but the increasingly loud whirring of technology far too advanced for him to comprehend drowns the voices out. He tries to more his sprawling form, but he can't get very far with his leg tangled in cable. The blast doors close, sealing his fate.

The portal starts to spin, tossing him unwillingly in many directions as he gets tangled and trapped in more cable spinning with him. He can only watch in abject horror as sparks begin to move in near slow motion up the cables and toward his exposed form before they hit.

And then the cold air of the portal turns to fire.

Electrical sparks run through every inch of him, tearing a scream from his lips. He feels like he's falling apart at the seams, and every molecule of him is being thrown in every direction. The sensations of death seemed to last forever as Danny lost all feeling.

There's still screaming though, Sam's raw and loud as she shouts "Turn it off, turn the damn thing off!!" at Tucker, who is frantic in looking for a switch to do as Sam says. There's shouting and hands are shaking as the Fenton Parents enter the lab.

"What's going on in here?!" Maddie shouts as Tucker continues to look for a plug. She notices the portal first, but the panicking of the two teens drags her attention to the fact that her son is missing.

"Tucker! Just turn the damn thing off and get him out of there!" Sam ignores Danny's parents in favor of turning the portal off. Tucker continues to panic, looking around the walls of the portal.

"I can't find an off switch!" the boy shouts back, shaking more intensely now. Sam had dropped the camera what felt a long time ago and was helping scan the walls for a way to turn off the portal

Acting quickly, Maddie finds the plug for the portal and quickly disconnects the two ends. The sparks fizzle and die out, the swirling green inside the portal fading and the rotating gears screeching to an abrupt halt. 

The silence became deafening when the blast doors slid open to the empty portal, a light draft coming from within. Sam was the first to walk toward the doors, stopping at the edge and dropping to her knees in a deathly quiet manner.

"No..."

Tucker moved over to join her, faded green eyes widening before he tilts his head downward. The glare from his glasses then hides his eyes as he takes in what he sees in the portal.

Nothing.

There's nothing in the portal. No ash, no blood, no anything. Not a trace of Danny in the terrible machine and nothing to remember him by, save one scrap of tiny black fabric that floated lightly in the draft of the portal into Sam's lap.

She grabs the small cloth, remnants of the scarf Tucker had given Danny, and clenched it in her fist. Tears threatened to fall from her amethyst eyes, but she pushed them back as hard as she could. The soft cloth crumpled in her grip.

"This isn't real. This has to be a nightmare," Tucker mutters under his breath. "He can't be gone, he can't be... be dead..." the words are barely a whisper.

"Sam... Tucker...?" Maddie's voice is soft and grief stricken. "We're going to go up to the kitchen, call your parents and have a very... very long talk."

-

It had been a month since that day. Sam and Tucker were still coping, and that meant closing in and lashing out

Tucker was more reclusive now. He spent more time on his technology than actually talking to people and spent more time hovering around Sam than the girl's locker room. He couldn't be bothered to listen in class, but strikes for talking during it had gone down. Right now, he was reading an article on the various short earthquakes around the entire town rather than pay attention to anything else.

Sam on the other hand, had lashed out. She'd grown increasingly violent whenever Danny was brought up at school, and hated that there was no respect for the dead around the hallways. She'd been in detention on account of breaking Dash's nose, but it was because he was insulting Danny's memory openly to all the popular kids.

Today was a bit more tame though. Irritated by the lack of vegan options on the cafeteria menu, she'd worn down the school board for adding a few options. Originally, she wanted to revamp the whole thing, but seeing Tucker so depressed and knowing his love of meat despite her distaste of the thought, she decided to vouch for some healthier options than abominations like meatloaf.

They were seated off to the side of the cafeteria at the moment, Tucker absentmindedly poking his burger while Sam took ferocious bites into her tofu sandwich. Everyone avoided the two freaks when they could, so they were relatively alone for the time being.

"I'm going to go get another sandwich," Sam declares, getting up from the table and taking her tray with her. Tucker just hums, typing into his phone absentmindedly. Sam quickly moves across the cafeteria to the counter, where she sees an unfamiliar lady running the lunch bar.

"Hey, you weren't the one running this place. Did the other lady get sick?" Sam gives the new lunch lady an incredulous look, feeling very confused. The woman on the other side of the counter looks equally confused.

"I'm sorry, I thought today's lunch was meatloaf, but I don't see the meatloaf. Did someone change the menu?" the lady asked, in a sweet old lady tone. Sam smiled at the stranger in turn, putting her tray on the counter.

"Yeah, we changed the menu so it would be healthier and give everyone more sustainable options. I wore the school board down," she says rather proudly, standing a bit straighter. Though the lady in the other side of the counter bristles.

"You changed the menu?!" She shouts suddenly, her temper flaring as the temperature in the room dropped. Beady red eyes stare down at Sam as the stranger begins to float, causing the surprised teen to take a step back. Some heads had shot up around the cafeteria as the lady roars in an otherworldly tone

"The menu has been the same for FIFTY YEARS!" She bellows, before stacks of lunch trays begin to hover in the air. Too shocked to move, Sam can only stare in horror as the metal trays come flying at her at dangerously high speeds. She braces herself, folding her arms over her face and waiting for the pain of the trays to make contact.

But they don't make contact at all. A pair of monochrome blurs burst into the scene, gathering up all the trays and neatly stacking them back where they belong. "Huh?" Sam breathes, opening her eyes as the two blurs pursue the floating lady around the cafeteria.

The altercation is over as soon as it began as the blurs chase the lady through a wall and outside. Sam is left to blink dumbly at where the stranger had just stood, wondering if it actually happened. Tucker had joined her side, with his phone out of his face for once as he looks around the ruined cafeteria.

"Sam Manson and Tucker Foley!" a voice calls out, forcing the duo to whip their heads around and meet the angered eyes of Mr. Lancer, Dash standing smugly by his side with the grin of a tattletale plastered across his lips.

"My office. Now." Lancer growled, pointing at the doors of the grease and salad stained cafeteria. Sam and Tucker bow their heads and comply, Sam finding the time to shoot Dash a glare as he snickers at them.

Arriving at the office, Lancer pulls out the student records and sits at his desk. "Tucker Foley. Cronic tardiness, constant distractions in class, has had cellphone confiscated six times in the last month.." he reads aloud.

"Sam Manson. Eight separate counts of antagonism of other students, has sent one student to the hospital over a broken nose. We really must stop meeting like this, Miss Manson," he sighs. Sam only huffs at the statement.

Lancer gives them a disappointed look. "Look you two. I know it's only been a month since Mr. Fenton was unfortunately taken from us, but that gives you no right to continue this behavior. I understand that your grieving for your friend and the impact of his loss hurt you two the most around here, but you need to learn that this isn't acceptable."

He pauses, and then sighs. "I'm going to have to punish you two for destroying the school cafeteria today. Again, this behavior is unacceptable and you have to know better. Even if it's too much, ask yourselves. Would Mr. Fenton want to see you in trouble like this all the time?"

Lancer stands. "As punishment today, I want you to clean up the cafeteria instead of going to class. I'll write a few absence notes to your teachers for however long it may take," he decides, leaving the room.

Tucker folds his arms and huffs. "This isn't even fair. We had nothing to do with the cafeteria getting wrecked, why do we have to clean it up?" the boy whines, gripping his phone.

"I hardly believe what I saw myself, Tuck. If we told Lancer that a floating, glowing lady telekinetically threw a bunch of trays at me, he'd punish us further for ridiculous lies," Sam replied. "Hey, at least no class means no Dash. I'll go grab some brooms..."

There was a whisper in the air somewhere, something about not wanting trouble, but Sam passed it off as her imagination.

-

It took the whole rest of the school day to clean the cafeteria. Another random earthquake had knocked over a bunch of trays that had just been cleaned during the ordeal, leaving both teens a bit annoyed throughout the rest of the day.

It was a new day and a new morning though, and the both of them wanted to make the most of it, despite the hole where their third member should have been the past month.

Jazz was across the field today, coldly fuming about something. Though they didn't talk much, the duo did try to stay in contact with Danny's sister, since she was still pretty hurt about Danny being gone too. Seeing her this angry was out of the norm though.

"Something wrong, Jazz?" Tucker prompted, watching the cerulean eyes of Jazz turn to them. There was fury hidden behind them, but she sighed, attempting to calm herself. There was definitely a problem here.

"Yeah, there's a big one. Someone plugged the portal back in yesterday morning," she hisses, trying and failing to keep her cool. Sam was instantly furious, and Tucker had flinched quite violently at the mention of the portal.

"What?! Someone turned the damn thing back on?! After what it DID?" Sam roars angrily, not afraid to hide her discontent at only the thought of this news.

"Both of my parents are denying they did it, and I'd thought they'd given up on ghosts after their little hobby killed-!" she pauses, back tracking on herself as she takes another deep breath. "You get the point. But the problem is that it had to be one of them who turned it on, no one else could get into the house!"

"Gah, I bet they blamed it on ghosts again, didn't they?" Sam growled. "That's always their go to denial, ghosts did this, ghosts did that, ghosts!" Sam rants, Jazz nodding along in eager agreement.

"I'm glad you get it. It's so infuriating that they would do that! Dishonoring Danny's memory like that by reactivating that portal... now it could hurt someone else and they'll blame ghosts again!" Jazz cries out, folding her arms.

The ground begins to rumble and shake again. "Really?" Tucker whines. "Another earthquake? What is with this town and being off its rocker lately?"

There's a sharp, deep, _evil_ laughter around the school courtyard all of a sudden, as meat begins to pour out the doors of the school. Tucker looks amazed and unsettled, while Jazz and Sam just stick to being unsettled. It seems to converge at the center of the courtyard, a pile of steaks, chicken and fish becoming an amalgamated monster.

"That has to be the grossest meatloaf ever," Tucker complains. "Seriously who puts fish with steak? ...I'd still eat it though if it was cooked."

The horrid laughter ceases as two bright green eyes appear at the top of the meat mass, a mushy grin following it. "IT'S LUNCHTIME!" the monster bellows, as the temperature drops to freezing in the outside air.

Screams ring out around the school as the students flee the giant, angry mass of meat. "What even is that?!" Jazz cries out beside the two. Sam thinks she might have an idea, considering what had happened yesterday.

Before the meaty abomination can do any damage, a blur of black streaks across the sky and splits into three. The streaks knock the meat creature on the back of the head, forcing it to topple over into the ground. It gets up to swing at one, but the other two are there to counter, tearing at it while the third recuperates.

"Those blurs... they saved me the last time," Sam mutters, watching the display. Tucker nods, remembering the blurs from the other day too. Jazz watches slack jawed from behind the duo.

"And my parents told me monster movies couldn't happen in real life," Tucker comments, watching the third streak barrel into the monster and force it to explode, pounds of meat scattering across the courtyard.

As the streaks circle the strange lady from yesterday, who had appeared from the meat pile, Jack and Maddie had appeared around a corner armed to the teeth.

"We followed it here," Jack comments looking over at where her daughter and the other two ghosts were staring. "Mads! Look, I told you!" He exclaims, pointing to the strange lady.

"That one has to be a real ghost this time," Maddie comments, training her gun on the strange glowing lady. "Stand aside kids, I don't want to hit you or any of those Dream Whisps."

"Ghosts? Dream Whisps? What's going on, Mom?" Jazz asked, still quite irritated. Maddie lowers the gun and gives her daughter a sad look.

"Look, sweetie. There's something big going on in Amity Park. See, that Lunch Lady is a ghost, a real one, she's using her power to manipulate the raw meat around the school," she points to what is happening, and as much as Jazz doesn't want to believe it, it's the best explanation.

"So that lady is actually a ghost. A real ghost," Tucker suddenly feels very afraid, a real ghost? It's mind-blowing to think they're real, and another thing entirely to actually see one.

"And the black whisps? They've saved me twice now, are they ghosts too?" Sam asks, taking in the situation. Jack shakes his head this time, pulling out a very old book.

"The Tome of Spirits and Ghost Hunting, by Josef Fenton-Nightingale," Sam reads aloud. Jack smiles at that, taking the book back and flipping to a specific page.

"This old book has been in my family for a long time. My Grandpappy gave it to me instead of a pony," Jack mutters as he finds the page he's looking for. "Here we are, Guardian Spirits," he reads aloud before handing it back to Sam and setting up a Net-like device.

"Guardian Spirits, a special kind of ecto-entity known to sleep for thousands of years. Unlike normal ghosts, these spirits as such have many subconscious wills, carried out by Dream Whisps as they sleep. It is important not to mess with Dream Whisps, because it could wake the spirit," Sam reads aloud. "How have I never heard of this?"

"Grandpappy used to say that my ancestors were very secretive about the ghost knowledge they documented. Everything they learned in the field was left under lock and key for reasons not even he knew. I've kept this on the backburner for a while under Maddie's insistence on it being fairytales, but after finding out about these small ghosts being Dream Whisps, we're going to have to re-evaluate this old thing," Jack elaborates.

Sam turns her eyes back to the old pages. "Guardian Spirits hold lairs in the realm of reality, and are formed with high amounts of ectoplasm under the ground. Average sizes of Guardian Spirits thus documented range from 100 to 500 feet tall?!" Sam sputters, rereading the line a few times.

"Wait, so you're telling us there's a gigantic ghost the size of a city block, at least, under our feet right now?!" Tucker exclaims, lifting a foot off the grass with shock.

"We've been discussing the possibility that the recent earthquakes were the formation of the Guardian Spirit," Maddie explains, still trying to get a clear shot as the three whisps continue tormenting the ghost. "Now that it's Dream Whisps have manifested, there isn't much we can do. Disturbing the spirit or the whisps could wake it, and it could destroy most of the town just by waking up."

"This is crazy... absolutely nuts. I can't believe it was you two that were right all along," Jazz mutters with disbelief, before looking around and noting something. "Uh guys? I think we got the Guardian Spirit's attention."

True to Jazz's word, there was about five copies of the same shadowy ghost-like creature around them, with white gloves, white belts and white scarves. They all had ice blue freckles and light green eyes, watching the group intently. One was even peeking over Sam's shoulder to read the book in her hands.

The five whisps look among each other a bit worried, and the other three fighting the ghost seemed to pause a minute. A bit panicked now, the whisps calm each other down, too quiet to be heard if they were saying anything.

"Looks like the spirit isn't finished fully forming yet, it's Dream Whisps can't speak," Jack comments, attempting to keep his distance from them. One of the whisps spot the thermos Jack is holding, and suddenly a fighting one has a monochrome copy that catches the ghost.

"It mimicked the Fenton Thermos," Maddie adds, seeing the whisp capture the ghost. With the threat gone, the other three whisps joined the five around the group of humans.

"They seem friendly," Tucker comments, holding out a hand to one of them. Jack and Maddie tense, but the whisp takes Tucker's hand and shakes it like an ordinary human. Tucker shivers at the cold contact, but is glad the weird dream ghost doesn't want to eat his eyeballs or something equally creepy.

"Something tells me these guys like us," Sam discerns, watching the whisp beside her read the book in her hands. "We better get used to seeing them around if Mr. Fenton's book is right."

"Having a bunch of stalker dream ghosts is great and all, but what about the mess that actual ghost made?" Jazz asks, gesturing to the courtyard. The wisps all share a look and raise both their hands before they all vanish.

"Well, aren't our new friends considerate," Sam comments dryly, seeing Lancer head strait for all of them.

"And I thought my back was sore from cleaning the cafeteria yesterday..." Tucker whines, seeing the look on the teacher's face. There's a whip snapping sound behind his head that causes him to jump with a yelp, and Tucker just barely catches the smug glance of another whisp before it vanishes.

"Oh, _great."_


	2. A Bittersweet Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's a feels chapter that ties into "Bitter Reunions"

He remembers pain.

He presses the button and his world is overwhelmed by bright light and spinning. And as he spins, the light rips him to tiny shreds, like he's turning to dust. He feels all of it, every molecule separating from his body as the light consumes him. He's screaming, he doesn't know for how long, but the light turns to darkness and silence follows. 

In the darkness, it feels like his head is underwater. He can't breathe, but he soon realizes he doesn't need to. The subconscious thought of dragging air in and out is lost, and it's the strangest feeling for him. Like removing something off your person you forgot was there, an itch is left behind until the world normalizes again.

It's cold in the darkness. He can't see anything in this place, let alone know where he is. Is he anywhere? He remembers the pain for a brief moment. Is he dead? The thought makes the entire world around him colder.

He is dead, isn't he? Reality is cold now, the darkness filling his every sense. So this is death. He never expected it to be so lonely. The silence permeates around him, lasting what seems to be forever.

And then there is a voice. It's muffled, distant, but there is a voice. And then there are many voices. They grow louder, filling his hearing in the darkness. He recognizes some, not all of them. There are so many voices getting louder and louder.

He clings desperately to the ones he knows. Sam, Tucker, Jazz, his parents. He picks their voices out of the mine field of so many sounds. They're the loudest, the clearest, as the other voices fade into background noise.

They are speaking now, there are words. He listens ever harder to the words they speak, desperate to hear them from the silence and the chatter. He can hear Sam first, but something is so, so wrong with her voice. It's sad.

"Danny... had been my best friend for years." The voice is filled with grief and mourning. "He was the glue that held us together, and I don't know what I would have done without him. But he's gone now."

He wants to cry out to her. He's not gone, he's not gone! But no sound passes through the air in the sound of his own voice. He can't join the chorus of chatter about him no matter how hard he tries.

"I wish I could see him again." It's Tucker, who's speaking now. The air of humor he always had was tainted, his voice cracked and raw. "He was the reason we were a team, you know. My best friend, and the only one out there that I knew who had the guts to stick up for nerds and geeks schools over."

Reminiscent sadness. It's painful again, but it's not a physical pain. His chest still burns, but it's a new pain that scorches him now.

"His death is on our hands just as much as anything else." His mom was now loud and clear in his mind, but he'd never heard her like this before. "We were careless, and unprepared. Our negligence led to this happening, and our invention-" she chokes on her words. "It... it took our baby's life.... my baby boy's life..."

Jazz is the next one to speak. "Danny was my brother. Teenage years can weigh... heavily on our youth nowadays... but Danny was perfectly sound at the time of the accident. Impulsiveness... and... and curiosity were what lead him to.... to where we are now. And, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't think of anything better to say, little brother. I'm so sorry...."

The tears come, he can practically feel his sister's knees hit the grassy ground in turn. He so badly wants to say that she didn't need to apologize. He so badly wants to hug his sister. But he can't.

There's a sudden light around him in that moment. It's bright and blinding, but when his vision adjusts, he can see the outside world. He can see his family.

He rushes over to them, to tell them he's here, that they don't have to be sad, but nothing comes out. Not a sound passes his lips, when he realizes he has no lips in the first place.

It's like watching some sick movie. He can't interact with anyone here, not his friends or family, and the ceaseless chatter in the background refuses to leave him. He wants this to stop, to end, but it just won't. His hand can only go through those he wants to embrace, and his voice doesn't exist.

He sees his father walk up to the gravestone between all of them, and Danny can only look at it with sick curiosity. It's his gravestone, with his name carved deep into the rock that rests in the ground.

_Daniel James Fenton_  
_April 3rd, 1990 - August 10th, 2004_  
_Youngest Son and Brother, Best Friend, and a True Hero_  
_May His heart Forever Soar Among the Stars_

Even though he couldn't cry, he could still feel the tears in his eyes. That's his gravestone. The confirmation that this isn't just some dream. That this is death, and that there's no reversing this. No fixing this.

His father joins his sister on her knees as she cries into the rest of his family and friends. Sad, blue eyes reach the stone, and Danny feels himself meeting the eyes of his father. Jack Fenton stares past him, at the stone. The rock. The damned pebble with writing on it that had more physical corporeality than his own soul.

Danny wants to punch it. Make it disappear. Get rid of the rock that was proof of what's going on, wake up from this sick nightmare at home, in bed, with his family.

He doesn't even hear them leave as he continues to glare daggers into the rock with his name on it. The background noise bleeds back into his consciousness, and the loud noise drown out his thoughts until they become nothing.

He can see all of Amity Park, but his self is still focused on the one stupid rock in the middle of a field of rocks for all he cares to remember. The visions of everything bleed into nothing.

What he'd give to be alive again. To knock this stupid rock over and make it go away. To make the rock never exist in the first place.

The rock exists. He doesn't. And it pisses him off.

So when the day comes that he can move the rock, he can only stare. He pushed the rock over. He actually pushed the damn thing over. 

He looks at his hands. He has hands. They're small, and their white, and they glow, but he has hands. He spent the next day clenching and unclenching his small, white fists. It's the happiest he's been in days.

He thinks he's looking into a twisted mirror at first. Like in a fun-house at a circus. But as he blinks between two views with two different backgrounds. There's two of him. He has two forms.

And then he has three. And four. And more. Every vision he has of the town has his form. It's transparent, it's as black as the night sky with green eyes and small fangs, a tail instead of legs, but it's him. He has a form.

He exists.

When the ghosts start to appear, he's the one to stop them. He trusts his parents when it comes to ghosts, aside whatever he is. He fends them off, keeps people safe. Most of the ghosts run away when they see more than one of him.

Until one of the ghosts dared to attack Sam. He made sure to teach that one a lesson its never going to forget. That was the day his family saw him. The day he learned what he was.

He reads the book three times over while it's in Sam's grasp. Guardian Spirit. It rolls in his head, and what he is scares him. He's not ready for something like this.

It's a bit sad though, no one recognized him. He can't blame them. he barely recognizes himself. It's better he doesn't wake up.

It's obvious why the ghosts are scared of him now. They must be afraid of Guardian Spirits, whatever it means to them. He didn't know a ghost could feel fear, but ever since he started snooping in on his parents reevaluating his father's old book, it's not to far of a stretch that they were wrong.

It's the subject of halfas that interest him. Ghost/human hybrids? What even is such a thing? They sound impossible, but then again, so did he.

It's a lot to comprehend. Being a giant ghost underground and all. It's a good thing that he's asleep. The last thing he needs is to wake up and take out a city block with his head. Death sucks for one thing, so he'd rather not kill anyone.

Back on topic for him. It's when he receives word that his parents are going to a college reunion he decides to be a bit mischevious for once and follow them. 

After all, despite the many copies of himself he can make, it's a bit lonely when no one recognises your ghost. Ghosts. Are his other selves even considered ghosts when the real ectoplasmic entity is the one under the ground with a different classification?

That doesn't matter right now. What does is managing to stay hidden in the back of the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle where his parents won't find his three copies. They'll just shoo them out again and he'll never get a chance to find a way closer to his family.

Come to think of it, he should have thought of a plan for revealing himself at this reunion. Danny is sure he'll think of one on the fly as the three whisps of his subconscious huddle in the back of the GAV, all the way to Wisconsin.

Once his parents are out of the RV, the whisps phase themselves through the back and hide behind the vehicle. A tall man in a black suit greets Jack and Maddie at the door, before letting Maddie in and slamming the door in Jack's face.

All three whisps can't help but hiss silently at that. They may not be developed enough to make sound yet, but it's clear they're upset. Jack knocks on the door a few times, demanding the suited man, Vlad, let him in.

Even his name sounded menacing. The three whisps share a look, sure that they don't like this Vlad character already. In turn, the door is left unopened and his father still blown off outside. It's time for some intervention beyond the grave.

The three whisps move around the extravagant castle, and phase themselves through the wall. They chuckle silently at the thought that a Ghost college "pal" would have better supernatural security.

Making sure neither Maddie nor the Vlad guy were paying attention to the door, a whisp quickly turns the knob with a soft click, allowing the next knock to push it open.

Jack runs down the hall at Vlad, tackling him in a bear hug while the whisps hi five each other. Maddie stares in their direction, causing them to jump and disperse before Vlad can recover from the very Jack Fenton greeting.

Doesn't stop a bit of eavesdropping though. The whisps carefully move back in the room, keeping to the shadows as the adults talk.

"I'm so sorry about your son. I do sincerely hope your son's spirit is resting in peace," Vlad says smoothly. Both Fenton parents take a moment in silent sadness.

"You think we would have learned, Vladdie," Jack mumbles, hands in his lap. "After your accident left you in the hospital."

Now this might be interesting. The whisps lean in closer, drowning out the noise of Amity Park in their ears.

"It was foolish of us. We tried to continue what we started so your accident wouldn't be in vain, but it was clear things weren't meant to be," Maddie continues, looking off to the side. "The new portal works, but it... it cost too much. Just too much...."

"I see. What happened is such an unfortunate event for you all. You have my prayers and my hopes that your wounds will heal, and I'm sure everyone coming to the reunion will agree with me," Vlad purrs in much too sweet at tone.

Danny decides he doesn't want this stuck up richcase's respects. Frootloop.

Jack and Maddie stay the night at Vlad's castle, with the reunion being tomorrow they would need some rest. And, with the adults asleep, it was time for some dream rampant spying.

The three whisps move through the halls, seeing if they can spot anything suspicious in the castle corridors. They all sense a ghostly presence and gather together, prepared for anything that might come out to say boo.

They're met with a vampiric style ghost that comes out of nowhere, approaching the whisps with no fear and a fanged smirk.

"Well, what do you know? My vultures weren't being a fair bunch of chickens. There is a Guardian Spirit in that cumbersome small town," the ghost hisses.

"So?" One whisp takes the front stance. "There's three of us and one of you, if you're thinking of trying anything!" The other two follow the lead of the first, readying plasma rays in their misty hands.

The vampiric ghost grins. "Oh, really now?" Just like that, it splits itself into four copies that surround the three whisps in an instant. "What have you to say about that, boy?"

"What?"

"How did you-?"

The three whisps are knocked from their stupor as the ghost and it's duplicates overwhelm them in seconds, chasing them all out of the castle walls. The ghost makes it's duplicates vanish as it meets them outside the castle.

"You'll find a Halfa like myself is no idiot, spirit. I'm not moronic enough to push you three into awakening, yet." it hisses. "But, invade my castle again, and I will make your wake up call so sudden, you'll tear the whole town you're under up from its roots."

"Halfa?" One whisp mutters.

"Wait, it can hear is?" A second chimes in.

The vampiric ghost smirks. "Still developing, are we? I'd take it a Ghost of your size and power would take a long time to form. As to answer your previous inquiry..."

A ring of darkness and shadow forms at the waist of the ghostly vampire. It splits, peeling back a dark veil, leaving Jack's college friend standing in the same spot.

"You?!" One whisp shouts. They all gather their energy again.

"Ah, ah, ah! If you value your rest, deep in the earth as you are, you won't try anything rash now. Such as telling anyone what you've learned here today?" Vlad smirks with a wide grin. "Lest you wake up a little to quickly under there. I dread to think what would happen~"

The whisps growl, but find they can't counter the Halfa before them. Vlad smiles widely as he phases back into his castle.

"Man, halfas are jerks. Let's forget I was ever interested," the whisps fold their arms and stick their ice blue tongues out at the spot Vlad was standing.

"I knew he was a bad old cheesehead from the start!" The second hisses, causing the third to perk up at the words. A thought is shared between them.

"My parents!" They all shout, beginning to panic. That Halfa might be planning something downright evil for his mom and dad. They have to get back in! But how....

A flyer for the reunion flies past the three whisps. They meet each other's eyes and smile widely.

-

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"It's your idea too, shut up."

"And if I'm unsure, it means all of us are."

"Quiet down and stay low. This is the only way to get in!"

The three little whisps stuck close to the ground as the partygoers mingled through the halls of Vlad's castle. The amount of people provided plenty of cover for the whisps to stay low and phase partway through the ground.

"So we go in and use the fact that we're dream whisps to scare mom and dad out of the castle?"

"They avoid us like the plague, remember? It's as easy as that."

"And don't get caught by that frootloop Halfa. That'd be bad news."

They make their way across the ballroom as poppy electronic music plays around. It's not the most important thing right now, as their parents are just across the room.

Something invisible to the mortal eye suddenly bursts through the floor, right into Jack's body. The man's eyes turn a bright crimson in turn. An uncharacteristic, evil grin takes Jack's face as he confronts Maddie angrily.

The three whisps share a look. This is the picture book definition of not good.

Jack begins to float, screaming at the top of his lungs. The reunion guests leave the ballroom in a panic, bar the overshadowed Jack, Maddie and three half submerged dream whisps who are more than a little pissed as instincts flare in them.

Nobody messes with Danny Fenton's father.

"Leave him alone!!" The whisps pull themselves the rest of the way out of the ground, shouting in unison as they circle the overshadowed Jack. The possesses mortal stumbles back in surprise at their sudden appearance.

"What are you doing here?! I already warned you I'd wake you if you dared to interfere!" Vlad spits in Jack's voice. "Why do you care for this bufoon anyhow, spirit?!"

They all glare a deep, green glare. One whisp pushes forward and pulls the ghost out of its human puppet, causing Jack to sputter.

They encircle the vampiric Halfa with fury, as something seems to dawn on Vlad.

"I get it now," he smirks. "That's why you're here!" It charges a beam of fiery plasma. "The Guardian Spirit under Amity Park. You're Jack's son!"

The three whisps in turn throw up a shield.

"That's a new one."

"Who cares!? Dodge!"

They move around more blasts of energy, before finally cornering Vlad in an intense stroke of luck. Another look is exchanged, and they all share a look.

"Listen to me. If you threaten to wake me up, I'll reveal you. Your secret identity. Dad's book is full of stuff on Halfas like you, so there's no worming your way out of it." The first growls.

"Unless you agree to a truce, we're stuck at a crossroads, Frootloop." The second smirks.

"But, if you want to be bitter and alone, with witnesses to you waking up a giant town monster, be our guest~" the third hums thoughtfully.

"Using you're opponent's weaknesses against him? Perhaps you aren't so much a failure of a Ghost. Very well," Vlad purrs with a condescending grin. "Truce."

He disappears after that, leaving the frontmost whisp holding air. The ectoplasmic dream drops his hands in turn and faces the other two.

Who are looking into the mortified faces of their parents.

And just as the silent tension seems so thick you could cut the air, Maddie breaks it with a soft word.

"...Danny?"

....

"Hi... Mom."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guardian AU: Full Ghost Danny AU on unorthodox niche steroids.


End file.
